Tim Blair

I had a similar experience listening to about a minute's worth: they're on Mute Records, Blixa Bargeld of Einstürzende Neubauten plays guitar, so how could they be so unenjoyable? I've got a theory: the Bad Seeds live on image and impression, two things on which all hipsters subsist. If you've seen the Wim Wenders movie Wings of Desire, where the Bad Caves have a cameo, you'll understand why: it's artsy and fashionable. Why should the coolniks care about technique or musicality? ;-)

Hey Ray Smuckles, for a cat you sure can't tell the difference between Nietzsche and Kafka.

I guess you guys haven't listened to "The Boatman's Call," a masterpiece of a record. Listen to it, or listen again, and think: early Leonard Cohen.

Nick Cave is a musical genius. Sorry you don't get it.

I have to agree with Michael regarding Nick Cave (sorry the rest of you can't appreciate his genius). Better still was his previous band, The Birthday Party. "Prayers on Fire" was my favorite, but they were pretty much incapable of recording a mediocre record.

What was his album with all the twisted carnival imagery? "No one saw the carny go" etc? Was that one Boatman's call? Because that one rocked. Also, King Ink is a great song. And the weeping song too.

He must be a genius, because I distinctly remember Cave and the Bad Seeds being booed quite enthusiastically at Lollapalooza in '94. They were appearing with the likes of Beastie Boys, Tribe Called Quest, and George Clinton with P-Funk Allstars. You know, the whole misunderstood genius thing. Come to think of it, Leonard Cohen probably stinks at large outdoor venues too.

Nick Cave in the mid afternoon is not a pretty site. He is definately a night-time musician. And the Lollapalooza tour was an extremely bad fit for him. The Birthday Party probably could have pulled it off, but the Bad Seeds stuff was way above what most people would expect from that tour. I saw him perform solo on piano a couple years ago and he was great. Murder Ballads was a great excersise in thematic writing. His novel "and the ass saw the angel" is one of my favorite fiction books. Twisted Genius is easily an applicable title that can be bestowed on him.

On the otherhand, I don't expect Nick Cave to be the favorite music for a cat. Nick Cave is more of a black dog kind of thing. A black dog with god issues and a deep sense of comedic timing.

site= sight.

Spending too much time on the web, if I am mixing up the spelling of "sight" with "site".

Say Cave and the Birthday Party at the Peppermint Lounge (NYC) in 1982 on a double with John Cale, who was terrific. But listening to Cave was a horrible ordeal. Isn't it time he did everyone a favor and overdosed or something?

Ah, yes. I don't know much about music, but I know what I like.

What I love about music is that every asshat has an opinion.

You are leaving out the crucial use of italics humor, pirate. So it's all:

One time I had a girlfriend dress up as a grateful homeless woman. That was one of the hottest nights of my life. Did Axel ever tell you his Nick Cave-with-a-gun-at-6-am-in-East-Berlin-dive-bars story?

Nick Cave sucks donkey balls.

I often comment that Cave sings like a drunk with constipation

What's truly terrifying is that he's even worse at writing books than he is at singing.

"Hey Ray Smuckles, for a cat you sure can't tell the difference between Nietzsche and Kafka."

I wonder if that was like a joke or something?

Have to say I don't enjoy all of Nick Caves music but I sure as hell enjoy a lot of it. Let Love In was a great pop album.

Look broody, be doped, sing flat, make no sense ... Nick Cave

"One time I had a girlfriend dress up as a grateful homeless woman. That was one of the hottest nights of my life."

Once I had a boyfriend dress up as a grateful homeless man.

I kicked him out of the house.

You shouldn't let pussy make your musical decisions for you, Tim. I've seen that happend to friends of mine, it's sad.

Some of those who dislike Cave seem trapped in his Birthday Party period (which I happened to love), and I can understand that, it was stuff that pushed all the boundaries.

But I've softened and mellowed along with Cave, and think that people should spend a little more time just listening to the music produced by the Bad Seeds, music that draws on all sorts of genres (including stuff like Country) and I personally find it at times achingly beautiful, full of feeling and passion.

Gosh, Nick even sings some of the most beautiful and affecting love songs I've ever heard (superbly backed up by the Seeds). I mean, Nick?! Love songs?!

Release the bats!

Big Day Out, sun going down....blood red sky fading into black..The Bad Seeds make the stage, the sky rumbles fury as they commence their set as light rain falls.

Cave enters stage, underlit gloriously, they roll into the the seriously haunted "Tupelo"...shivers the down the spine moment. By the time they are amping up "The Mercy Seat" (since covered gloriously by Johnny Cash), it's pitch black, and the intensity emanating from the stage is something I've not experienced since...

Magnificent, and for the Lollapalooza viewers out there, absolutely gigantic audience looking & sounding pretty happy. 15 albums now (?), half of them excellent.

A toast to one of Melbourne's finest!

Nick Cave may or may not be a genius, but Ray Smuckles absolutely is.

Nick Cave a talent? As johnny Rotten once asked.. "Ever get the feeling you been had"?

Jeez Tim, what a vicious slur against a great artist.

Ray Smuckles, "common"?

Forget Cave. Pick up something by Lloyd Cole or his 80's band, The Commotions. You won't regret it.

I hate Nick Cave.

Oh yeah. Once more with feeling. I do. Especially for the calculating way he's positioned himself as some kind of alt-music icon. Awful stuff.

He's not a bad song-writer though; there have ben some outstanding covers of his stuff, most notable being johnny Cash doing "the Mercy Seed".